Enigma au is getting the fluff before the storm but admittedly I don't plan on the storm being super bad so I guess it's the fluff before the light rain ig. (Note the keyword is "plan" I do not control this trolly if the track suddenly turns into a sheer drop I guess it's just a roller coaster now)
🎶 Once, I can't remember, I was long ago someone strange.
I was innocent and wise, and full of pain... 🎵
Since the YT series days, I've always seen ENAs being publicly viewed as some sort of fae-equivalent entity in the universe they exist in. Revered for their beauty and talents, scorned and sometimes even feared for the extreme reactions they can illicit in other lifeforms for simply existing in the same space, like sirens unaware of their own deadly allure. Some entities simply found them annoying, while some found themselves enamored to the point of madness. Others desired to snatch them up and keep them as possessions to make art and other forms of amusement endlessly.
As the ENAs eventually took advanced measures for their safety and isolated their country from the rest of the world with an encrypted firewall, they only became more mythologized by others in their absence, fading memories of them turning into games of telephone, further warping and exaggerating how the world perceived them.
Some used ENAs as the subject of cautionary fairytales, warnings to married men to steer clear of colorful polygonal women dancing through the fields on a clear night lest you be swept into their eternal dance until you dropped. Others remember them as simpleminded, harmless nymphs, their contributions to the art world a time capsule into a bygone era, they themselves becoming subjects of many a song and painting.
The public eye is a precarious place for an ENA to find themselves in, that's for sure. Ena herself has been accustomed to arbitrary public scrutiny since her upbringing, despite having spent her early years in the last tail-end of Enigma's isolation, due to her piebald status making her an outlier among even the ENAs and a target of scorn from her own kind.
Of course, in an odd way, this made the transition from living in Enigma to the outside world a lot less jarring for her compared to the monotoned ENAs of her generation when the firewall abruptly fell away and the ENAs were forced to disperse, as she'd already learnt how to mostly avoid conflict with strangers who had already made their minds up about her and let (most of) their harsh perceptions of her roll off of her detached shoulders. On the other, blockier hand, her conflict avoidance, desire for love, and youthful naivety still made her an easy target of bad actors in her first years out in the open, kickstarting several millennia-worth of lessons to be learnt about setting boundaries, and reassessments to be made of her worth to the world and herself.
Even with all of the ways that she has been maligned or mistreated, Ena wants nothing more than to connect with others and to both share and celebrate the culture she was raised on and reveres: the REAL culture of Enigma that has not been over-embellished or exoticised by outsiders' hear-say.
--
Also included under the cut is a version of this piece with the mural undamaged.
Jaune to Jacques: YOUR LIFE IS NOTHING, YOU SERVE ZERO PURPOSE, YOU SHOULD KILL YOURSELF NOW!!!! *Thunder strike sfx*
*Another one*
Jaune to Neo after he gets shanked: My god, Maybe your parents were right *Looks at her blankly* You Were A Mistake!, You can't even get me to stop talking *takes out the shank*
*Another one*
Jaune to May marigold: Damn, you're trans but can't get any bitches?, You really are putting the L in LGBTQ
*Another one*
Jaune to Mercury: Deep dive into the edge of the cliff I'll give you 50 lien
Mercury: Sweet free money!
*Flashback end*
Cardin: .......He was a kind and compassionate man Raizo........He was a kind and compassionate man
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Focus
Summary: Written for AI-less Whumptober 2023 Day 28. Set in my Magic AU. A successful spell of any kind requires concentration, something Hiccup lacks. Unfortunately, when he finds his focus, it’s on the wrong thing entirely.
Author’s Notes: Honestly love writing for this AU. And glad to add some Snotlout whump to this year's AI-less Whumptober!
Enjoy!
@ailesswhumptober
XOXOX
For as long as he’s been here, Viggo has been a mystery to Hiccup and he figures he always will be. One moment, the man has all the patience in the world for him and seeks to tutor him personally. The next, Hiccup is a stain on his existence. It’s a confusing dynamic that they have, one he doesn’t appear to have with anyone else in this castle.
“Take something and focus your magic for once in your life. Try the spinning top, maybe a child’s toy will finally help you grasp the basics!
Clearly, Viggo has never met an actual child before. But it is the reason why he had to go all the way down into the dungeon- now a place where artifacts and other nick-nacks are stored- to grab a child’s toy that hasn’t seen the light since the 1800s to practice his focus on. Because the key to a successful enchantment is focus, something Hiccup severely lacks. He blames the neurodivergency.
It’s lunchtime, but instead of taking a break, he’s taken the toy with him to the dining hall, where he sits at the table and, in every sense of the word, embarrasses himself in front of his newfound friend group.
“Oh, come on! Work with me here!” Hiccup moans in annoyance as he spins it only to watch it come to a slow stop, dashing whatever little hope he has. The point is to keep it spinning. Spinning, spinning, spinning, and spinning, for however long his concentration lasts. Endless motion.
Snotlout snickers. “This is just painful.”
Astrid kicks him underneath the table, he jumps and spills his soup. Ruffnut protests loudly when some of it splashes onto her pile of sandwiches.
“Maybe you’re not saying it correctly?” Fishlegs gently offers.
“Uh, Mr. Amazing over there? Mr. I’m-Awesome-At-Everything-I-Do? I thought he didn’t need to incant stuff?” Snotlout comes again as he uses his one napkin to clean it up. “No magic outside of class,” Viggo always says, but he’s pretty sure that rule only applies to him and the twins.
“Maybe you lack intent?” Astrid offers.
“I’m not sure what other intent besides “spin you stupid thing!” I can give it. I’m intenting the crap out of it! I’m going to be stuck at the basics forever,” Hiccup deflates.
Snotlout snickers again. “All the power in the world, still sucks.”
“Don’t you have soup to clean up?!” Astrid asks him, arms crossing.
“Uh, and who’s the reason I have soup to clean up?”
“Just go grab more napkins. Maybe it’s your unbelievably loud slurping that keeps distracting him,” she crosses her arms and Snotlout sends her a glare.
But it’s true. Partially. Hiccup can’t focus in the dining hall, but he couldn’t focus in the classroom either. There was this fly that kept buzzing around the room, coming close and then flying out of reach. His senses have always felt like they’re dialed up to 11, that’s just how his brain works, but it’s ten times worse when he’s trying to focus his magic on anything.
Hiccup brings his attention back on the top. Instead of spinning it beforehand, he lets it lie and tries to make it move that way. His fingers press against his temples, elbows on the table, as he glares at it as if it’ll help.
But the table doesn’t remain quiet, Snotlout gives him a glare and snickers before Astrid kicks him.
“Maybe it’s your nagging.”
“Maybe it’s your face!”
“Maybe it’s your face!”
“Maybe you should just shut up, Snotlout! As a matter of fact, stop breathing! Just stop breathing in my general direction so I can finally concentrate!” Hiccup snaps at only one arguing half. It’s true that Snotlout’s constant slurping was also throwing him off. He knows he was doing it on purpose, he likes to make things hard for him.
Hiccup focuses back on the top, willing it to spin, but still nothing happens. He doesn’t understand why. He can feel the magic in his veins thrilling, reacting to his command, so why won’t the top just do as he asks?
“Hey-” Astrid comes.
“Astrid, not now,” what if he just glares really hard? Maybe that will help.
“No, seriously, you need to stop.”
“And I need every noise in the world to stop.”
“H-man, look at what you’re doing!” Tuffnut comes, sitting directly across from Snotlout.
“No, look!” Fishlegs yells and Hiccup just barely avoids a soup bowl thrown at his head.
Now standing, he looks at Snotlout to find his hands around his throat in a struggle. He makes no sound as he’s not getting any air. He’s not even choking, he’s simply not breathing.
“Hey, come on, man! Stop!” Ruffnut yells at him, also rising to her feet.
“I-I-I’m- I’m not-”
“Yes, you are!” Astrid states as she stands and grabs Hiccup’s hands. “Come on, you can do this. Just break your hold on him.”
“What do you mean “just break my hold on him?” I have no idea how I’m even doing this!” Comes Hiccup’s panicked reply.
In a frenzy, Snotlout jumps up from his seat and slams a fist on the table. He looks like he’s trying to make his lungs work, but it’s as if they’ve forgotten how to. Others in the dining hall watch them, whispering.
“Come on, Snotlout, breathe. Just breathe,” Fishlegs comes over and throws an arm around him. Ruffnut stands on his other side while Tuffnut kneels in front.
“Just do what we do!” He says as he and his sister breathe in and out in an exaggerated manner.
“None of that will help! The spell needs to be broken!”
Hiccup looks at each of his friends, panic causing his heart to race. He can’t focus, he can’t break anything.
And there Astrid goes, out the door. Saying something about Viggo, she bolts as fast as her athletic legs can carry her.
“Come on, man! You’re the one doing this!” One knows they’ve messed up when even Tuffnut is seriously mad.
“I don’t know what I’m doing!” He yells, hands in his hair.
Snotlout’s face turns a deep blue, he pounds on his own chest, but still his lungs won’t work. In Fishlegs’ arms he goes limp.
“Snotlout, no!” he yells, holding him up. All Hiccup can do is watch on in horror. “Hiccup, just stop!”
Hurried footsteps enter the dining hall. A large hand settles on Hiccup’s forehead from behind, the owner mutters an incantation about sleep, and his consciousness fades. Eyes rolling back, legs going limp, Viggo catches the young man and gently lowers him to the floor.
A dramatic gasp fills the dining hall, Snotlout finally takes his first breathe in what feels like an eternity. Without the strength to stand on his own two feet, he hangs onto Fishlegs sluggishly, barely conscious himself. Relief sweeps through the hall.
“Now would someone be so willing to tell me what in the Hell happened here?” Viggo is beyond angry, as he usually is whenever something of this magnitude goes wrong.
No one answers simply because they don’t know how to. They were eating, there was some banter and arguing, and the next thing they know Hiccup was passively choking the life out of Snotlout.
Viggo breathes through his teeth, realizing that his students don’t quite know how to answer that.
“Fools, all of you,” he mutters before taking off his dark blue vest to fold up and place beneath Hiccup’s head. It shouldn’t take too long for him to wake up.
Fishlegs helps Snotlout sit on a chair as he catches his breath. His lungs are burning, his body is weak, and the most terrible headache he’s ever experienced pounds inside his skull.
“He was… trying to kill me!” He gasps, a hand still on his chest.
“He wasn’t trying to kill you,” Viggo bites back at him. He was nose deep in a book when Astrid came bursting into his room and disturbed his peace.
“Sir, what did happen?” Astrid asks. She figures they’re all dying to know. How could Hiccup just enchant Snotlout like that and how did his hold on him not break? He was panicking just as much as the rest of them, probably even more so.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Viggo asks. “Our dear friend focused his magic on the wrong target. And instead of breaking his hold, his panic strengthened it.”
In a way, it makes sense, or so they suppose. Heavy emotions can make or break a spell.
“Take Snotlout to the infirmary. I’ll wait for him to awaken,” their mentor orders, referring to Hiccup, and they listen. While Fishlegs and Tuffnut take their shaken friend away, Astrid and Ruffnut are urged to follow. Astrid shoots a glance at Hiccup behind her.
In time, the entire dining hall runs empty of guests, leaving just the two of them.
It takes a couple of minutes longer, but Hiccup eventually comes to. He’s understandably sluggish as he awakens from a brief sleep put upon him by magical means.
“Viggo?” He’s confused to see him at first, but as the events preceding his passing out return to him, he sits up in a hurry.
“Snotlout! What-what happened to him? Is he- is he okay?!” He asks his mentor, who raises a hand to silence him.
“Snotlout was taken to the infirmary, but I suspect he’ll make a full recovery. You have nothing to worry about,” he assures him.
Hiccup sighs and pulls his knees up, settling his elbows on them and a hand in his hair. He wouldn’t exactly say that he has nothing to worry about. He almost killed Snotlout! By accident!
Viggo lays a hand on his shoulder and once again he’s showing a side to him that the others don’t get to see much. Or at all.
“You’ll learn to control it,” there’s almost confidence in his statement, but Hiccup isn’t sure how that will ever happen.
“Sure, like I haven’t been trying to learn my entire life,” he mutters as he rises to his feet. Viggo watches him leave, expression unreadable. The dining hall behind him, Hiccup retreats to his room, unsure how he’s going to face anyone ever again.
For some reason Enigma au has been devouring my mind guys (probably bc Guide is at a Key Moment and I am scared of touching it rn) i love the enigma cookies so much so much I wanna formally apologize to Enigma!Nilly for our brief dip outside of fluffy territory.
